“Descendants of people displaced during the redevelopment of San Francisco’s Western Addition and Hunters Point decades ago would be given first priority for the city’s affordable housing under a measure pending before city leaders.
The proposal, which is scheduled for a vote by San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Sept. 9, would give housing reparations citywide to people forced out of the Fillmore area in the 1950s and 1960s and Hunters Point in the 1970s, as well as their children and grandchildren. They would be put at the top of the city’s lottery system that awards much-coveted affordable housing units.”
∙ Some evicted in ‘renewal’ may get housing help [SFGate]
Silliness.
So much for the self-evidence of the truth that all men are created equal…
I heard that Coho Salmon may also be indigenous to that area.
we should put them top of the list. That would really make SF a unique city- a neigborhood of predominant Coho Salmon. I can’t think of anything more liberal and PC and sensitive than that.
What about the descendents of the Ohlone?
Pretty thinly veiled attempt to put African-Americans at the head of the line to stem the exodus of that demographic from SF (not a whole lot of displaced Japanese-Americans’ descendants will qualify, I suspect). Laudable? Perhaps. Legal? I’m not so sure, and I expect there will be battles over that if this passes.
Middle class African Americans have fled San Francisco in search of safer neighborhoods with better schools – in other words, to better their lives. There’s nothing in this sad gesture which change any of the underlying reasons for black flight from the city.
It’d be nice for the City to provide our first-responders (fire, police, nurses, etc) and public school teachers some incentive on BMRs too … when the big one hits, I don’t want most of our life saving folks located in Lafayette and unable to get to San Francisco
Oy … not incentive, I meant priority/preference for BMRs …. I’ll go have some coffee to wake up now. 🙂
No offense, Jamie, but I’m so tired of seeing firefighters being named among “the poor” or people who can’t afford housing and should be entitled to BMRs.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/09/22/BAGQO8SR8O1.DTL&type=printable
“Firefighters, followed by the highest paid group, the firefighter paramedics created in the merger, who earn a starting wage of $85,000.”
Although the article is quite dated (2004), I would certainly not consider firefighters among the poor, even at the 2004 salary, by today’s standards. I’m sure the starting salaries have also adjusted upward for cost of living increase since then.
And nurses? My friend is a nurse, and she is a six-figure earner or very close.
Jamie – The big one will create a crisis beyond what medical and emergency professionals can handle whether or not they live in SF proper. Even the bedroom communities of EMTs and firefighters will struggle.
I’d encourage anyone concerned to learn basic first aid skills. Arrange an emergency plan in advance with your family and neighborhood. Expect to be on your own for the first 24-48 hours.
Jamie for yourplan to work firefighter and police would need to be forced to live in the City because most choose not to
Up until the 1980’s there still were areas many still lived in SF but the city is way left now and most of them don’t want to live here
I think we all know (or should know) that, much like the Katrina hurricane folks, we’ll likely have to rely upon ourselves and our neighbors for 3-5 days at minimum because our emergency folks will be overwhelmed. That’s why I encourage everyone to take NERT training on a fairly regular basis on my blog (see my last mention from just last Wednesday: http://www.rinconhillsf.org/2008/08/13/519 )
Although I wasn’t going to give too much detail around my comment, I guess I can give it a couple more minutes now that I’m waiting on a frozen lunch entree to heat up in the microwave and I’m officially “on lunch.” I’m not saying we should force our first responders and teachers to live in San Francisco – just to give some preference because it would be beneficial from multiple standpoints (“the big one” just one of many). I can understand folks not wanting to live here – political or other reasons among many. They would still have to meet the BMR requirements, right? So, they’d still have to make less than $63,000 or whatever it is for a single person for 100% area median salary and so on. If you’re pulling in $100,000+, you wouldn’t qualify.
Our police, firefighters, nurses, and public school teachers should be given preference so that they can build roots in San Francisco … their circle of friends would be San Franciscans .. they’d feel a little more invested, incentivized to care more about making things work …. and when all hell breaks loose for a big earthquake, we’d be thankful to have a few more folks with the appropriate training to take care of those people who are in the worst shape but salvageable as opposed to just having to write folks off as dead because NERT training, as great as it is, doesn’t turn us into nurses or paramedics. On the other hand, the statistics about how many people died in the middle of China because the folks their didn’t know about “clearing the air passage” as step 1 for helping someone out is mind-boggling. Anyway… my microwave is beeping at me …
many of our police officers, fire fighters, nurses, and yes, even teachers, could not qualify for BMR’s under the income limits because they make too much money. I think the starting salary of police officers and fire fighters would preclude them from BMR purchases if they were single.
Not so sure I would use the word coveted for BMRs. Once you look into the conditions, the relative lack of appreciation, and somewhat high HOA’s for many of the units compared to the lottey winner’s income, I’m not so sure it’s really all that great.
how will “city officials” accurately verify who lived there, and specifically, also got displaced 50+ years ago? although i think what happened in the fillmore district was deplorable, this sounds like another nutty “only in san francisco” kinda thing. i mean, this isn’t exactly the same as the palestinian/israeli conflict (where talks of repatriation are hotly debated.)